It's Spring at Storybook Farms

(It still makes me smile to type Storybook Farms....we are so far from being a "farm"  but we have the dream and love the property God gave us)

Spring has arrived in North Central Florida!  We have had a couple of chilly overnight temps, but for the most part we are hitting 80-85 during the day.  It feels like everything turned green overnight!  Here's a little of what is happening around our place.  And some goals, too!
My sweetie has been chopping down some trees.  We feed the leaves to the goats, and clear more danger from around the house.

We have 3 citrus trees out front....A key lime, meijer lemon and another type of orange fruit.  They are doing very well!  We even have several blooms on the tree.

A meijer lemon bloom.

My gardenias out front are blooming.  But, the poor things aren't looking too healthy. Although we really haven't given them much attention.  We fertilized them, and have been adding some pickle juice to them.  ( A neighbor said they love it, we'll see!)  I can't wait for them to be covered in flowers.  I think gardenias are the best smelling flowers! We also plan to mulch in the flower beds.  It always looks so much prettier!

We have 7 hens and 1 rooster.  I love the sound of a rooster crowing before the sun even comes up.  It really is the best alarm.  They are now laying much better now that we have more daylight.  Callie has asked for a chicken stroller for her birthday.  Isn't that funny?  I guess that would really put us in the "farmer" category!

We've prepared our raised bed for more vegetables.  Our cabbage did quite well, if you like mini-cabbages.  :o)  And our brussel sprouts were the size of peas.  They were they best pea-sized brussels I've ever had!  :o)  We hope to plant some peppers and tomatoes.  Maybe some cucumbers, too.  We'll see!

Jenna and Trixie (our two female goats)  are doing well.  Now that the Vet has treated them properly they are gaining weight and full of energy.  Having goats has been such a learning experience.  I've been telling Patrick that these girls need a husband!! Hopfully soon!

Our magnolia tree will soon be full of blooms! Although the yellow leaves with brown spots concerns me.

And with the help of my mother-in-law, we now have all of the trees and bushes transplanted to the area we now call our "Orchard."  Don't you just love it!!??

We have 1 pear, 3 apples, 1 olive, 3 blueberries, 2 pomegranates, and 2 chinese honey trees.  We fertilized them with rabbit manure and are praying we'll have an abundance of fruit!  We plan to put pine bark around the blueberry plants and mulch in the other trees.

The apple tree is blooming!

Blueberries!

Our pomegranates didn't seem to like the move very well.  Hopefully they'll come around soon.

So spring is here.  And since I've taken these photos we've already had many changes around here.  I love it!  I'll be posting soon about the spring updates around Storybook Farms!  And changes usually means more animals! :o)